indo-malay heritage: batik boom

On this left hand corner, you'll see a graph of batik trends according to www.google.com/trends. the upper graph is the search volume on internet (through google) and the lower graph is the news volume. See, from 2004- mid2007, the search volume for batik is almost too small to graph. But according to the news reference graph, the news found on internet about Batik is sufficient. Howerver, that's not my point on writting this. Im talking about that graph on the right hand part, yes that line that rockets sky high on the search graph. around the month of july, the keyword "batik" was searched by Indonesian almost like a severe virus. The point market with "F" is about a Malaysian Specialist who showcased Batik at Rizqun Hotel.
One theory, that boom happened when people started searching again for batik as the international fashion market started to show a tendency to explore patterns and Asian influenced fashion sense again. Fortunately, i have been eying batik and asian influence patterns since i seriously joined the art pathway at school. So i sort of see how mrs.vreeland started putting organic patterns on her dresses, then some other designers start follow suit, until most recently Prada started using the "cheongsam" dress (chinese traditional dress) as base for their dresses.
Anyway, i am happy that batik is getting more popular in indonesia. at first people thought that batik is just a dress parties or even a dress for old women in jogjakarta. but, no, not anymore. thank god! Not because i am a fan of batik from the very first time i laid eyes on it, but because batik is declining in the world and for some reason people just forgot about them, or rather don't want to use them anymore. Ironically, batik is a national heritage and with those kind of thinking make batik less usable in the modern world. That's why i am happy for these drastic "Batik Boom". Now, Indonesian women (more to the dynamic jakarta high class women) could be seen with batik when they hang out with fellow high class women in malls, parties, "arisan", etc. That way, fashion shops in Jakarta started producing batik dresses (obviously in modern designs) and fashion magazines started to dig into the core of batik again.

and that's what it takes to be a fashionista; take a national heritage, renew it and wear it with pride :)